University of Ottawa historian Beatrice Craig and a team of researchers recently published a comprehensive history of the St. John Valley. Craig's easy-to-read research in "The Land In Between – The Upper St. John Valley Prehistory to World War I" describes the social, economic, religious, transportation and political history of the corridor around the St. John River, where Maine connects with New Brunswick.

During the Colonial era, northern Maine and northwestern New Brunswick were just called "Madawaska." In Maine, the area today is sometimes called "Evangeline country." This literary label connects the people to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline, heroine of an epic poem describing the British displacement of Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, called "Le Grand Drangement."

Some refugees of the brutal 1755 expulsion fled to Madawaska from Nova Scotia, settling around the St. John River. Some of the French-speaking descendants of those refugees reside in the St. John Valley to this day.

Mainers plainly refer to this area as "The Valley."

The Valley people from Maine and New Brunswick are proud of their international French history dating to the early 17th century. Nonetheless, researchers looking for information in one central place found the task difficult.

Most of the source documents are stored in small historical societies, libraries or municipal files. A valiant attempt to chronicle the area's past was published in 1920 by the Rev. Thomas Albert in "Histoire de Madawaska," but his was not a scholarly history.

An Acadian Archives was established at the University of Maine in Fort Kent to centralize The Valley's historical and cultural information.

Accordingly, "The Land In Between" is a researcher's dream. It's an inclusive treasure trove of information about the St. John Valley in a thoroughly documented volume. Maps and hundreds of historic citations are included.

Craig is a native of Lille, France. Her interest in the St. John Valley began in the early 1970s, when she was as an undergraduate college exchange student from the Universite de Lille III studying in Presque Isle.

"I never heard of Acadians until I arrived in Maine," she said. She didn't know about New England's Franco-Americans or the regional French-speaking mill towns. In fact, the only French-speaking Americans Craig was aware of were in Louisiana.

In 1983, Craig received her doctorate in history from the University of Maine. She chose to research the St. John Valley because previous historical accounts were piecemeal and little had been done after the 1920 publication of Albert's "Histoire."

Additionally, archivists were actually worried about the safety risk to the available information because of damage by fires or the relocation of the data.

An opportunity to write a research document was offered to Craig by the Acadian Archives and the U.S. National Park Service. "We agreed. A new history about Madawaska was needed," she says.

Past accounts of the St. John Valley characterize the people as quaint, faithfully religious and family-oriented, she said, but this description is too simplistic.

"Those traits are typical of many other societies. They are not the end of the St. John Valley's stories," she said.

Most important, "The Land In Between" is enjoyable reading for the average person. A follow-up history is planned to extend the history through World War II. Additionally, Craig hopes to write a French translation of her work.

"The Land In Between" is published by Tilbury Press in Gardiner. Co-authors are Maxime Dagenais, Lisa Ornstein and Guy Dubay.

Juliana L'Heureux can be contacted at: Juliana@MaineWriter.com